ABSTRACT
One of the most fascinating features of Sibawayhi's method of grammatical analysis is that he uses his technical terms in a very conscious and orderly manner, although he rarely tries to define them. That some grammatical concepts for which later grammarians coined terms are expressed in the Kitab through description and not in technical terms - such as ism al-alah which Sibawayhi refers to as ma alajta bihi - does not alter the fact that the various technical terms he does use have very well established meanings and are often predictable in certain contexts. The study of Sibawayhi's terminology - which has been considerably enhanced by Troupeau's Lexique-Index - thus promises to be a rewarding, though cumbersome, task which does not only attempt to solve much of the difficulty surrounding the text, but also aspires for a better understanding of the development that took place at a later period in the meaning and usage of grammatical terms.
